Supervised probation advised for boot camp case medical examiner

BRIAN SKOLOFF
August 9, 2006

Associated Press

JUPITER, Fla. - An embattled medical examiner, who performed a disputed autopsy on a teenager who died after a confrontation with guards at a boot camp, should be placed on supervised probation for the remaining 10 months of his contract, a state commission recommended on Wednesday.

A three-member probable cause panel of the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that Bay County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert was negligent in performing at least 35 of 698 autopsies reviewed.

The panel recommended suspension followed by probation, but the full commission voted to order Siebert to retain and pay for his own supervisor until his contract expires June 27, finding that his work was negligent and he failed "to perform the duties required of a medical examiner."

An administrative complaint will be filed by the commission next week. Siebert then has 30 days to respond, and can either accept the punishment or appeal. He will remain in his $180,000-a-year position.

Criticism of Siebert surfaced after he performed the autopsy of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who died Jan. 6, a day after being roughed up by guards at a Panama City boot camp for juvenile offenders.

Siebert ruled the death was caused by complications from sickle cell trait, a genetic blood disorder, and not from injuries sustained by the confrontation with the guards.

After outcry from Anderson's family, the boy's body was exhumed and a second autopsy by another doctor found Anderson died from suffocation.

Attorney General Charlie Crist in April called for an investigation into Siebert's past autopsies. The Anderson case, which is still under investigation, was not included in the panel's review.

Most of the alleged negligence came from Siebert's use of "canned" autopsy reports that describe victims in much the same manner, using the same terminology to detail conditions of organs and other body parts, the panel found. The commission said it appeared Siebert was using a standard template for his reports and not adjusting them to individual cases.

Among the most egregious errors was a case in which Siebert noted the presence of a "prostate gland and testes" - organs that belong to men - on the body of a young girl.

After the commission made its recommendation, Siebert defended his cases, noting that he has never used a template.

"There's only so many ways you can describe what a spleen looks like," said Siebert, who did not speak during the commission meeting.

He said he has not decided whether to appeal the commission's recommendation, but added it would be difficult to pay for an independent supervisor to review all his work.

"If somebody has to be there every day, then there's no way I can do that," he said. "I'd just have to give up."

Commission chairman Dr. Stephen Nelson noted "there was a consistent pattern of brief autopsy reports" and that they "lacked sufficient descriptions."

"The underlying problem is the use of a template and not looking through and correcting it," added commission member Dr. Jon Thogmartin. "The worst thing that can happen is we don't do enough and it keeps going ... All his reports look the same, and that's not possible."

There was much debate among the commission over recommended punishments, ranging from probation to suspension to outright removal.

"I'm troubled that he can remain in a position of the medical examiner as opposed to working under a medical examiner," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a commission member. "The work appears to be not only less than desirable, but also less than acceptable."

The Anderson autopsy led to furor over the state's handling of the case and gained national headlines in April when students in Tallahassee staged a two-day protest in Gov. Jeb Bush's office. The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton joined the students and Anderson's parents for a march on the state's Capitol.

Anderson's family has sued the state Department of Juvenile Justice and the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which ran the boot camp, seeking more than $40 million in damages.

The military-style boot camp system was formally dismantled in May under a bill signed by Bush.